How To Make Wine -- A Great Adventure !
Years ago, my husband decided he wanted to learn how to make wine. He read the books, visited the "how to make wine" shops, gathered a wealth of information and he was off to the cellar to mix up his brew. We had some wonderful wine from those batches and we were most encouraged in our new endeavor of how to make wine.
You don't want to make the mistake that an ol' timer friend of mine made when she first learned how to make wine. She and a friend of hers decided to make some red wine from their home grown vineyard. Not knowing better, the two self-taught wine brewers mashed up the grapes, tossed them and ALL of the other necessary ingredients, including the yeast, into a big crock. Proud of their accomplishment, the two left their concoction to set up. What a shock they had the next morning when they found their wonderful bright red wine mixture had over-grown the crock and had flooded the beautiful kitchen floor in her friend's brand new house. Need I say any more about the importance of following directions carefully?
I hope that in sharing what we learned from various sources you will have a great experience in learning how to make wine from your own produce and in your own home. We hope you enjoy.
How To Make Wine
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SEVEN EASY STEPS FOR HOW TO MAKE WINE
1. Prepare whatever produce you will be using by cutting up the larger fruit, breaking open any skins that are on the smaller fruit, chopping up additional ingredients such as raisins, and rubbing or scraping other ingredients such as ginger root. Be sure to remove any pits.Be especially careful not to over-process the produce. It's really easy to do. Using a food processor , blender or other mechanical tool can cause bitterness from the skin and/or seeds to set in to your finished wine product.
2. Stir together all of the wine making ingredients called for, EXCEPT for the YEAST. Gather the pulp in a fermentation bag and submerge the bag into the wine making mixture. Add enough water to the batch to make 5 gallons. Then add 5 crushed Campden Tablets. Do not add the wine yeast at this point in the process. Adding the wine yeast at the same time you add the Campden Tablets will result in destroying the yeast.
3. Cover the fermenter with a thin, clean towel and wait 24 hours. During this waiting period the Campden Tablets are sterilizing the juice with a mild sulfur gas. After 24 hours the gas leaves the container making it then safe to add the wine yeast.
4. Sprinkle the wine making yeast over the surface of the juice and then cover it with a thin, clean towel. Allow this mixture (must) to ferment for 5 to 7 days. You should start to see some foaming activity within 24 hours of adding the yeast. Typically, 70% of the fermentation activity will occur during this 5 to 7 day period.
5. After 5 to 7 days remove the pulp from the fermenter and discard. Siphon the wine into a secondary fermenter in a careful manner, so as to leave the sediment behind. You can easily remove the pulp by lifting out the fermentation bag. Wring out any excess juice from the bag. Siphon the wine off the sediment without stirring it up. Get as much liquid as you can, even it some of the sediment comes with it. If necessary, add water back to make 5 gallons.
6. Attach a wine making air-lock and fill it approximately half-way with water. Allow the juice to ferment for an additional 4-6 week period or until it becomes completely clear. You may want to verify with your hydrometer that the fermentation has completed before continuing on to step 7. The hydrometer should read between 0.990 and 0.998 on the Specific Gravity scale. Be sure to give the wine plenty of time to clear up before bottling.
7. Once the wine has cleared completely, siphon it off of the sediment again. Stir in 5 Campden Tables that have been crushed and then bottle. When siphoning off the sediment, unlike the first time you siphoned the wine, you want to leave all of the sediment behind, even if you lose a little wine.
Again, we hope you enjoy learning how to make wine and that you will visit our site again as we add more helpful information for your wine-drinking pleasure.
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